92-pages-GUIDELINES-FOR-SECONDARY-SCHOOLS-All-Streams-and-Sections

learners boost their writing competencies. Much time needs also to be devoted to writing with a view of helping
learners become ‘effective writers’. Two types of inter-related considerations are in order: (a) the writing
strategies’ considerations, and (b) the linguistic and rhetorical considerations of writing.
a) The writing strategies’ considerations
This strand of writing features the strategies below. These strategies are not used in a linear way. They are also
valuable for learners to be able to (i) meet the standards stated earlier, and (ii) grow as independent writers:
a) generating topics through prewriting activities (e.g., brainstorming, mapping, K-W-L charts 30 ,
discussion, reading/listening notes, etc);
b) making the purpose(s) suit the audience (e.g., to inform, to communicate, etc.);
c) writing a first draft with the necessary components of a specific genre;
d) revising the first draft content (e.g., organization, relevant details, clarity);
e) editing (or peer-editing) revised draft using resources (e.g., dictionary, glossary, grammar reference);
f) proofreading the revised draft individually or in pairs or groups;
g) presenting a “final” copy according to the purpose and topic of the task (e.g. publish, send/mail, or
present).
b) The linguistic and rhetoric considerations
The second strand of considerations features the following writing competencies, which are also useful for
learners to be able to meet the standards above:
• mastering mechanics and using spelling, punctuation, capitalization and usage to make their writing
legible.
• giving the written piece a clear text structure with an effective beginning, middle and ending;
• using cohesive devices and transitions to organize content at the level of paragraph(s) and whole text
effectively;
• selecting an appropriate style according to their audience.
• using a variety of sentence structures: compound, complex sentences, the active voice, the passive
voice, parallelism, etc.;
While training learners in the process of writing, some further practice at the level of mechanics and accuracy
should also be done to contribute in the improvement of the piece of writing. To raise learners’ consciousness to
how different text structures and genres are organized, a lot of reading, listening, and discussions are needed.
30 A KWL chart involves the following columns (1) K: what you know, (2) W: what you want to learn, and (3) L: What you
have learned.
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التوجيهات التربوية وبرامج تدريس مادة اللغة الإنجليزية س ت ث ت 2007